Blog

I chose the assignment “What’s In A Name?” https://assignments.ds106.us/?s=what%27s+in+a+name&post_type=stufftodo&assignmenttypes=writingAssignments to explain early in the life of this website why the title, “D’Juneau?”  It happens to be a play on the name of my home of origin, Juneau, Alaska.  I left when I was only 4 but was imprinted on the magnificence of the mountains, waters and wild of the land. I was transplanted to the small town of Waukon in the middle of dairy farming in the Driftless Area of Northeast Iowa.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driftless_Area

Waukon.  Driftless.  What’s in a name??  Makes you wonder.  I always felt like an outsider and when I was 17 and out of high school, I walked on, drifted away, to college.  First it was only 20 miles away to Luther College and then the summers in Yellowstone, then the leap across the Rockies to Oregon State University.

But growing up, the word “Juneau” was an unusual name so whenever it came up, I always made it funny and still do, d’juneau?  Then, when people figured out how to pronounce it, the awkward and strange became familiar to them.  It also made me, the awkward and strange outsider from Alaska, okay and familiar to them.  All the while, they never knew what I was doing, which was simply working to break into, and belong in their circle.  D’Juneau what I mean?

Then there’s my first name, Jenny.  A jenny is a female ass and I can be quite stubborn, especially when someone tells me I can’t do something because I’m a woman.  Like when I was told I wasn’t allowed to go to Marine Corps Officer Candidate School because I was enlisted and married to an enlisted man.  Or that I couldn’t jump out of a helicopter and go SPIE rigging.  Or drive a tank, or go to Okinawa, Japan, pregnant while on active duty when women were supposed to get out of the Marines; or teach a platoon of women the manual of arms with rifles for a parade when specifically told not to.  All of these things I did anyway.  Just Being Jenny.